The upcoming decade spells a lot of opportunities for businesses to revive themselves as the world returns to stability. This optimism also applies to the owners of small businesses, who can finally use this green light to take their business ideas and formulate them into a proper plan. However, a business plan is not taken into consideration often. This simple strategic approach can help entrepreneurs get more organized.
Since the food, beverages and hospitality industry differ a lot from the product and services based market, there are not a lot of measuring yardsticks for small business owners aiming to open their own restaurant, chain or franchise. This blog aims to help such entrepreneurs to regroup and create an effective business plan for their establishment with consideration to the unique requirement and demands of a restaurant. Ready to dive into the nitty-gritty? Let’s get started.
What is a business plan?
A good business plan is the foundation and base structure of your business. Based on what you have charted down, it can guide an entrepreneur and the management team through every step of forming and running a business. A business plan is also used as the entrepreneur’s roadmap for organizational structure, workflows, and growth of a new venture. It helps organize and bring all the key aspects of a business to an interrelated course of action.
Business plans can assist a small business owner to acquire funding or onboard new business investors. Such partners like lenders, shareholders and investors need to see that you have a foolproof approach to do what it takes to give them the ROI they want. A business plan is your pitch to all parties you wish to work with.
Structure of an effective business plan:
An effective business plan that covers all the elements of a restaurant consists of the following sections. These are subject to modification depending on how intrinsic and extensive your goals are.
- Executive Summary: The executive summary of your business plan comprises the base note and driving force of your restaurant. Here, you talk about the ultimate goal of your restaurant. Start by explaining what the restaurant does, its location, vibe, cuisine, speciality, USP, and other elements in brief that will paint a picture in the mind’s eye of a reader. For creative effect, you can also add sketches and graphics of how you plan the place to look, capturing the vibe and speciality of the place. An executive summary is supposed to be kept brief and to the point, which can all be elaborated upon in the next sections with document automation.
- Establishment Description: Here, you get to go into the details of your restaurant or food chain. From the location and seating capacity to all the tiny details that will make your restaurant a success, all of it is mentioned in the establishment description. You can add sample menu lists, event ideas, and more. As a business owner, consider this section the second most important one since this is the dream-seller to your investors. Talk about the industrial advantage that you have and what makes your plan unique from the rest of the competitors. Describe the set-up, kitchen, dining options, and staffing capability with their training to give further clarity. This section also involves all your permits and licencing.
- Products and Services: As a restaurant, your products and services are all-encompassing. If you have curated a menu, this is the section to add it to. Add your food and beverage selection as well as the restaurant speciality that will win customers over by tantalizing their taste buds. Since your business plan can be more creatively inclined, don’t feel shy to add visual representation for effect.
- Market Analysis: A wise business person knows the market inside out. Your competition will be all restaurants around a particular area, including giant chains. To make your business plan viable, make sure that you have done your research on the performance and figures of these establishments along with a strategy to surpass their success and become a dominant business.
- Stock and Inventory Supply: One of the biggest questions for restaurants and hotels is how they plan to source their raw materials and alcohol. If you’re a business that plans to provide an authentic and exotic experience to customers, find the right vendors for organic and ethically sourced produce and meat for your menu. Apart from these, getting your ingredients and spices from wholesalers that give you the best deals with zero compromise on quality is a must. Make sure that you have options so that the fulfilment failure due to unexpected reasons get covered by the other in your inventory supply. For alcohol, you can get in touch and partner with a wholesaler of alcoholic drinks to be your supplier. However, make sure that they have all their paperwork and licensing in order.
- Logistics: Deciding upon the logistics of your delivery system whether you plan to partner with third-party brands or have your own team is to be explained here. Make sure to add the percentage cut and revenue that goes into the third-party affiliation for your presence on such food delivery apps and websites here.
- Strategy and Implementation: Mention the phases of your execution strategy so that you can regroup and check if your team is going as per plan. This also shows the management and investors how detailed you are in charting your progress. If you haven’t started off yet, it would be wise to have a set of goals to achieve in every phase.
- Organization and Management Team: Mention the names of your management team, partners and employees in this section. This makes up the core team from all departments.
- Financial plan and projections: Lastly, note down realistic projections for the next few quarters in terms of growth and revenue. Make a contingency plan as per the ongoing pandemic and keep things optimistic yet reserved.
Wrapping Up:
It may take you a while to complete the business plan, but doing it well the first time is necessary for the long-term success of your business. We hope that you have enough ideas to form your own from our structure; Good luck!